Idle thoughts - The step away from the edge edition.

sambam94 said:

eagles did not gain lot of yardage because their offense wasn't on the field..I was not impressed with the pats defense..couldn't stop when they needed to, that's all that matters

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Look at the box score: Eagles vs. Patriots - Team Statistics - December 6, 2015 - ESPN

The Eagles scored 14 points on offense, were 6 of 14 on 3rd down, and gained only 248 yards to the Patriots 427. The defense was great.

The Patriots lost on three plays: a blocked punt for a TD, a punt return for a TD, and Brady's interception that went back 99 yards for TD.

The Patriots walk away with a 28-14 win if it weren't for the costly mistakes.

I like how people pretend that the Eagles had nothing to do with the "mistakes" the Patriots made. These mistakes were made because receivers were not getting open, the OL was not blocking, and Brady was making poor decisions.

Any team can win on any Sunday, which is why I found this undefeated talk so lame.

Too many forced errors and too many dropped balls.

And despite what the box score says, the Patriots defense did not play well enough. Remember the Eagles had 3 less possessions, which can amount to about 240 yards and 9-21 points.

from bruschi's chat today
Chat with Tedy Bruschi

Keith (Virginia) [via mobile]


Hi Teddy enjoy your chats. To be honest, I really see the pats finishing 12-4, best case. Could be 11-5. I see them absolutely losing at Houston and at NYJ. At Miami is a toss up. As the #3 seed and likely playing the Steelers or Jets in round 1, I think we match up poorly and could be looking at another one and done in the playoffs. It's unfortunate but there are too many issues with the RB, OL, WR, TE etc. either way, we cannot bear Cincy or Denver on the road. Not with this roster. It's unfortunate that Gronk's dad won't let him play until playoffs. But by then it's too late. Your thoughts?

Tedy
(3:19 PM)


I see what you're saying, Keith. Where they are now, with the injuries (some not 100 percent, some not there at all) this is the truth: They will have to scrap and claw to win any one of these remaining games.

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Hey Tedy! I may be an optimist, but if this is possible, I actually felt good about Sunday's loss. Of course, it's never good to get an L, but they fought back and if not for special teams blunders, the defense played well enough to win. What's the biggest issue Bill is going to work on this week and how do you see the seeding playing out in the AFC? Thanks! Go Pats!

Tedy
(3:03 PM)


Mitch, the fact you say "if not for special teams blunders" doesn't sit well here. The reason is that special teams are just as important as offense and defense this time of year. You just don't notice them until something dramatic happens, whether it's good or bad. It's like saying when the special teams/defense played well, 'If the offense played well, we would have won that game.' I spent almost my entire career playing special teams, and I'll tell you this, if Geneo Grissom doesn't wake up and play his guard position better on the punt team, there will be more problems in the future.

Tedy
(3:04 PM)


There was a foreshadowing of those problems in the Dallas and Denver games.

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Tedy
(3:13 PM)


Against the Buffalo Bills on Monday night Nov. 23, that's when I noticed busts in the offensive line, particularly David Andrews. Adjustments were made with Stork coming back in. They made some in-game adjustments that helped out the OL. But on Sunday against the Eagles, I noticed individual players getting beat. That's what I'd worry about. Once again, if you can get there with only three rushers, there's a problem.

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Chip Kelly may have saved his job with this win.
This game must have hit LaFell hard on his head, what with his drops and his comments about "Belichick shows films of only the opponents best moments" (or something of that sort). The players clearly knew that they were playing an inferior opponent and did not give it all. They sorta tuned their coaches out. This team has a lot of pride about their meticulousness. I do not think the players will take their coaching lightly for the rest of the season.

Nunchucks said:

I like how people pretend that the Eagles had nothing to do with the "mistakes" the Patriots made. These mistakes were made because receivers were not getting open, the OL was not blocking, and Brady was making poor decisions.

Any team can win on any Sunday, which is why I found this undefeated talk so lame.

Too many forced errors and too many dropped balls.

And despite what the box score says, the Patriots defense did not play well enough. Remember the Eagles had 3 less possessions, which can amount to about 240 yards and 9-21 points.

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I am sorry, but the Eagles were mediocre on Sunday at best (and I am being generous). The Pats gift wrapped them that victory. Was it great play by the Eagles that Chris Maragos had a gaping hole shot at blocking Allen's punt because of a badly blown blocking assignment that gave them 7 points (and I mean which was more responsible for that play)? Was it great defense that allowed the Pats to drive all the way to the Eagles' one yard line before Brady made the stupid mistake of trying to force a ball into Amendola in tight double coverage rather than just throwing it away and allowing Gostkowski to kick a chipshot field goal to go up 17-14 rather than allow them to return the INT to make it 21-14 Eagles.

The Eagles scored 35 points only 14 on offense and those offensive TD drives were set up by Patriots mistakes (the stupid Ebner pooch kick and Brady's INT after they were moving the ball well and Brady decides to throw a bomb to a covered LaFell which was way overthrown or underthrown if Brady was telling the truth and he was trying to throw it out of the endzone).

I gave the Broncos credit for playing the Patriots tough. But the Pats had this game in hand and gave it away. I can't remember the last time I thought this team melted down so bad. Even last year's KC game, they were outplayed. I think they outplayed themselves this past weekend.

SVN said:

from bruschi's chat today
Chat with Tedy Bruschi

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JC, Keith would be right at home around here.

We are so spoiled. We are 10-2. Yeah, we shouldn't have lost the game against the Broncos. And yes, we definitely earned that loss against the Eagles with bad play, bad coaching, you name it. But we're 10-2 with those two losses coming with a bunch of players that wouldn't be on the field for a majority of the time that they were. I said it before and I'll say it again: our focus at this point is getting to the playoffs as healthy as we can regardless of what seed we have. We are the best team in the league by far at full strength. Best QB, best coach. I know we can't TRULY be at full strength because we have lost some for the year, but we are still far better than any other team with the players we expect to have back. Yes losing games sucks. But if we have Edelman and Gronk back for the playoffs we can beat anyone. Health is more important than home field or a first round bye at this point. Having said that, those are still within reach.

^^^^it's not the 10-2 record folks are crying about. it's that this team is playing it's worst football at the worst possible time. we have always prided ourselves in post-thanksgiving ball.

goheels22002 said:

Look at the box score: Eagles vs. Patriots - Team Statistics - December 6, 2015 - ESPN

The Eagles scored 14 points on offense, were 6 of 14 on 3rd down, and gained only 248 yards to the Patriots 427. The defense was great.

The Patriots lost on three plays: a blocked punt for a TD, a punt return for a TD, and Brady's interception that went back 99 yards for TD.

The Patriots walk away with a 28-14 win if it weren't for the costly mistakes.

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eagles offense not on the field when their special teams are scoring tds. Pats d did not make the stops when they had to..which is been their problem for a while now..except for mr butler in a certain game last year

TommyBrady12 said:

^^^^it's not the 10-2 record folks are crying about. it's that this team is playing it's worst football at the worst possible time. we have always prided ourselves in post-thanksgiving ball.

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Which coincidentally happens when more than 70% of our offensive production is not available. I wonder if there is any connection. In the salary cap era it is impossible to have enough quality depth to compensate for the loss of so many key players. There is only so much you can do until they are back.

luuked said:

Which coincidentally happens when more than 70% of our offensive production is not available. I wonder if there is any connection. In the salary cap era it is impossible to have enough quality depth to compensate for the loss of so many key players. There is only so much you can do until they are back.

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You can avoid making costly mistakes. Do your job. There were a lot of the players and coaches that simply did not do their job last Sunday.

borg said:

The solid defensive stats should be taken in context. Because Philly scored on Defense and on Special Teams, NE's offense was right back on the field and time of possession favored NE by 9 minutes. The INT TD and punt return TD combined for 214 yards of indirect offense. After the 3rd quarter, not much was asked of Philly's true offense.

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The Philly offense scored 14 points in 10 possessions. Not a great day for them, except insofar as their team won anyway.

n6249c said:

You can avoid making costly mistakes. Do your job. There were a lot of the players and coaches that simply did not do their job last Sunday.

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In contrast to the Denver game where a fair catch should have been instructed I didn't see a lot of bad coaching against the Eagles. For some the drop kick might have been controversial, I was mostly fine with it because in the big scheme of things it didn't matter. All ST mistakes were individual errors where players didn't do their job.

The biggest coaching mistake might have been not challenging the tipped ball but then again it happened on the other side of the field, there were not many replays shown and the Eagles hurried to the next snap. Sometimes all things just accumulate and make you lose a game that you would win 9 out of 10 times.

I agree entirely with those who state:

1) We are spoiled. No doubt about that one. Lots of football remaining. Need to get it going now and build up some momentum heading into the postseason. Also, the obvious importance of the bye week, which would also increase the odds of Edelman returning and being able to heal properly.

2) The concerns are warranted, due to the way the losses have gone down, the injuries and obstacles currently facing the team, and finally the fact that it's a bad time of year to step backwards in terms of establishing chemistry. We'll need to get that straightened out.

Rob0729 said:

I am sorry, but the Eagles were mediocre on Sunday at best (and I am being generous). The Pats gift wrapped them that victory. Was it great play by the Eagles that Chris Maragos had a gaping hole shot at blocking Allen's punt because of a badly blown blocking assignment that gave them 7 points (and I mean which was more responsible for that play)? Was it great defense that allowed the Pats to drive all the way to the Eagles' one yard line before Brady made the stupid mistake of trying to force a ball into Amendola in tight double coverage rather than just throwing it away and allowing Gostkowski to kick a chipshot field goal to go up 17-14 rather than allow them to return the INT to make it 21-14 Eagles.

The Eagles scored 35 points only 14 on offense and those offensive TD drives were set up by Patriots mistakes (the stupid Ebner pooch kick and Brady's INT after they were moving the ball well and Brady decides to throw a bomb to a covered LaFell which was way overthrown or underthrown if Brady was telling the truth and he was trying to throw it out of the endzone).

I gave the Broncos credit for playing the Patriots tough. But the Pats had this game in hand and gave it away. I can't remember the last time I thought this team melted down so bad. Even last year's KC game, they were outplayed. I think they outplayed themselves this past weekend.

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I'll be honest and say I thought the Eagles were pathetic Sunday. The Pats coaches, O and ST completely shat the bed against Philly.

The Brandon Five said:

But then Collins forced a fumble with a little over a minute on the clock, so they did have a chance. They just couldn't do anything with that chance.

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If we come back to win the game, thats by far the play of the game. Collins has such a knack for the ball, its amazing. I'm glad he's back out there. I missed watching him play.

IMO they abandoned their "blue collar" mentality and went all Ivy League on them, while BB is the smartest guy in the room.. his football "intelligence" seems to have taken a back seat here. Did not see this team as prepared as they usually are... the team seems uninspired and lackadaisical..

For the past 15-16 years we have witnessed the best prepared teams in the NFL, so when we see our team floundering on the field as they were last two Sundays people get all pissy.. last week we were #1 in DVOA special teams, this week we are #6.. which surprises all of us and made the difference last Sunday night.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | 2015 SPECIAL TEAMS RATINGS

DarrylS said:

IMO they abandoned their "blue collar" mentality and went all Ivy League on them, while BB is the smartest guy in the room.. his football "intelligence" seems to have taken a back seat here. Did not see this team as prepared as they usually are... the team seems uninspired and lackadaisical..

For the past 15-16 years we have witnessed the best prepared teams in the NFL, so when we see our team floundering on the field as they were last two Sundays people get all pissy.. last week we were #1 in DVOA special teams, this week we are #6.. which surprises all of us and made the difference last Sunday night.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | 2015 SPECIAL TEAMS RATINGS

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We lost two games because we are missing the overwhelming majority of our offensive players and ****ed up majorly multiple times on special teams. It doesn't go deeper than that even though some people apparently really want to find some more systemic issues with the team.

If I were to do a power ranking right now I would put NE around the low to mid 20s range. A delicious sandwich with your Redskins and Bears of the football world. Sure they could handle a San Diego Charger, but a middle of pack team like dare I say as we will see Sunday in HOU? Well I am not a fan of those chances.

I don't think I'm in BB's head, but I think I can safely say that he's got a fair dose of this sentiment in there:

Obstacles are meant to be overcome.

I think that we are spoiled, because some of us just can't take the fact that sometimes our guys stink it up. The defensive performance, as Ken and many others point out, was very strong, but not lights out strong. These ain't the 85 Bears, but they're a very good current era NFL defense.

It especially hurts that we got beat the way we so often beat other teams: Special teams. The lower stats, the higher final score. The big play turnovers.

Interesting shots of Brady on the sidelines. Now I won't pretend I was focused on them, and we all know the perils of reading "body language." Caveats aside, he didn't look beaten. The shots I saw though, he also didn't look like he was firing up the team, playing cheerleader, etc. (Now he might have, while I was watching this screen instead of the TV screen - please correct me if I am wrong.)

But I saw him actively pensive - not closed in on himself, continually and calmly gathering information. Not complacent, but aware that this was a regular season game. Thinking what he was going to do with himself, and with this team, to not be in the position again.... while not giving up on this game. Calm but determined, I guess I would say. No "wahhhh poor me," but also not the "willing the team to win" Tom we've seen before. He looked like the general who thought the battle was going poorly, gathering/processing info for (dare I say it) the next campaign - whether that be the next time he's on the field or the next game out there.

Who knows. Maybe he wasn't up to being the "rally the troops" guy when he'd handed them a few gifts himself. That's just how it felt.

The crew on the field is expected to be a winning crew, not a fill-in for a winning crew... it almost felt like he was counting the ways that the timing was off, from O-line, to his own mistakes, to receiver mis-cues, to broken plays when the RB didn't know the direction he was going... (or he know and ahem others did not.)

Okay off to work. We're still all alive. Next.